The present invention relates to connecting apparatus whereby a tool or other accessory may be attached to a pole and, in particular, to a quick connect assembly whereby various accessory tools utilized in swimming pool maintenance may be quickly and easily attached and detached from a pole.
In maintaining swimming pools, it is necessary to utilize various accessory tools, such as a brush, a skimming net and a vacuum head. Because of the depth of the water and the size of the pool, the accessory tools are generally attached to the end of a long pole with the operator performing the desired maintenance activity by pushing and pulling the pole back and forth.
In the pool maintenance business, it is frequently necessary to perform one maintenance activity after another where each maintenance activity requires a different accessory tool. Since only one pole is generally utilized, it is thus necessary to remove one accessory tool and attach another to the end of the pole in order to perform successive pool maintenance operations.
Accessory tools have generally been attached to the end of the pole by a pair of screws which extended through the pole and a mounting portion of the accessory tool. A pair of wing nuts are then put on the screws and tightened to hold the mounting portion against the pole. Although this technique firmly holds the accessory tool to the pole, the changing procedure requires that the wing nuts be removed, the accessory tool taken from the screws, a new accessory tool placed on the end of a pole with the screws extending therethrough and each wing nut again placed on the screw and tightened. Not only is this technique slow, but the wing nuts can be easily lost or misplaced. In addition, such a changing operation generally requires the use of two hands and necessitates that the pole and accessory tool be placed on the ground or otherwise put down before the changing operation can be completed. Such an attachment apparatus is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,769,549.
In order to overcome some of these problems, a connector device for connecting pool cleaning tools to a conventional tubular handle or pole is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,749. While this connector device eliminates the two wing nuts, it is still necessary to loosen a set screw to remove an accessory tool and to tighten a set screw to clamp an accessory tool to the pole.
By contrast to the above-referenced patents, the present invention provides a coupling apparatus which does not require any such set screws or wing nuts and provides a means whereby the mounting portion of an accessory tool may be placed against the outside of a pole and clamped there by a locking sleeve. The locking sleeve clamps the mounting portion to the pole utilizing a wedge member which is fixed to the pole at a circumferential location opposite to that at which the mounting portion of the accessory tool is positioned so that as the sleeve slides longitudinally along the wedge portion, the increasing thickness of the wedge pulls the sleeve down against the mounting portion of the accessory tool thereby clamping the mounting portion between the outside diameter of the pole and the inside surface of the locking sleeve.
The wedge may be attached to the pole by a countersunk bolt or screw having an end protruding through the opposite side of the pole to provide a registration means so that the accessory tool may be held longitudinally fixed relative to the pole in a manner similar to that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,749. An accessory tool may thus be quickly and easily changed without the necessity of putting the tool down by simply placing the mounting portion of the accessory tool in registration with the pin portion of the bolt holding the wedge to the pole and then sliding the locking sleeve over the end of the mounting portion until the locking sleeve jams against the wedge surface. The accessory tool may be easily removed by simply pulling up on the locking sleeve.
Various coupling apparatus are also shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 309,324 and 309,444. However, in each of these patents, it is necessary to have two wedged surfaces, one on each of the members to be coupled. By contrast, the present invention incorporates but a single wedged member which is attached just to the pole. The mounting portion of the accessory tool does not need to be and generally will not be a wedged surface. In addition, in both of the patents cited, the locking sleeve must have a tapered or conical interior surface to provide optimal coupling. Indeed, in U.S. Pat. No. 309,444, such a tapered interior surface corresponding to the taper of the wedge is necessary to prevent leakage of that coupling apparatus. By contrast, the present invention has a cylindrical, non-tapered inside surface. Furthermore, coaxial alignment can be maintained and is indeed desirable for optimum function of the invention, by attaching an alignment sleeve having an inside diameter just slightly larger than the outside diameter of the pole to the inside surface of the locking sleeve. No such continuous, coaxial alignment, regardless of the location of the locking sleeve, exists or is even desirable in the inventions disclosed in the above patents.
Furthermore, in each of the above patents, the cross-sectional area through the coupling portion is circular whereas, in the present invention, the cross-sectional area is not circular but rather is a modified circular cross section comprising a circular cross section with a protrusion from one portion of the surface defining the cross section of the wedge member.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,490,705, a detachable beater connection is shown which utilizes a locking sleeve. However, as in the previously-discussed patents, the interior surface of the locking sleeve must be conical and requires that two surfaces rather than a single surface be sloped to provide the wedge effect. Furthermore, in all of the above patents, the coupling apparatus cannot be easily adapted, if it can be adapted at all, to modify existing devices in accordance with its teaching.
By contrast, the present invention can be utilized with existing accessory tools without any modification to the mounting portion of the accessory tool by simply attaching the various elements of the invention to the pole. Thus, the present invention may be easily attached to the end of an existing pole by simply slipping a collar over the pole and tightening a screw to fix the collar to the pole, slipping the locking sleeve over the end of the pole and, finally, attaching the wedge to the pole utilizing a screw which is provided to protrude through the pole to provide a registration means.